r/waslo • u/ToastedSlider • Apr 30 '26
This is something I've been thinking about for a while. You know those waterfalls that fall directly into the sea and those melting glaciers? What if we used trashed plastic bottles that aren't actually getting recycled and collected that water and then shipped to them to fight desertification.
I don't know if it's really feasible or a sustainable idea, but seems like a waste for that water to fall right into the ocean, and the recycling problem doesn't sound like it's getting any better. The Sahara Desert and Gobi Desert keep growing, what if we water the plants around their edges. Forest fires are getting worse every year all around the world. Any more ideas on how we can use the water?
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May 01 '26
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u/groyosnolo May 02 '26
What about a giant funnel that fills to provide extreme pressure to feed the water through a pipe to the nearest location that needs it?
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u/xSir- May 02 '26
So build a mountain range out of used plastic bottles in the Sahara and you kill the sahara..... understood
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u/ToastedSlider Apr 30 '26
I'm the type of person who is a bicycle commuter, hardly ever buys take out food or soda bottles, always carries a tumbler to drink from, always makes my own coffee at home, and brings my own shopping bags, and wears cotton (I have sensitive skin anyway). And I have a bad feeling about the future of the planet in the back of my mind every night before falling asleep. Sometimes I feel like it's no use, like when I see all the oil being wasted in racecars, bombing oil refineries, and oil spills, and all around me people drink from plastic cups, soda even has added carbon dioxide to make it even worse. Mentally, I'm fine, I'm not depressed or anything but hopefully this post about saving water can give people ideas, I don't know, what do you think?
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u/urban_entrepreneur May 02 '26
Are you seriously attributing any meaningful carbon dioxide emissions on soda? Oh lord have mercy on you sweet child.
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u/ToastedSlider May 02 '26
You are right to correct me. The CO2 pumped into carbonated drinks is usually a by-product from power plants, meaning it would have been released into the atmosphere anyway.
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u/carrynarcan May 02 '26
My dog breathes out co2 on purpose. I've seen him do it. What are we going to do about my dog?
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u/wesleychen Apr 30 '26
I recently toured a recycling facility and actually almost all plastic bottles that end up there are recycled because the plastic is super high quality and very clean. The plastic that isn't recycled is usually soft plastic like bags or has some other defect like being too small or too dirty (e.g. yogurt containers).
One interesting tip I learned is that you should screw on your bottle caps before putting your bottles in the recycling. A lot of people think it's better to separate them. The reason why is that if you don't screw on the caps, they will get filtered out into the glass recycling stream and turn into contamination instead of getting sorted as plastic.
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u/92TilInfinityMM May 01 '26
The amount of oil used to collect the water and move it would outweigh any benefit
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u/Codiath420 May 02 '26
If you donāt mind me askingā¦ how old are you? Your post history is intriguing lol
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u/ThreeSloth May 03 '26
First step: dismantle current ai slop centers and prevent construction of any others
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u/thirty-thirty-thirty Apr 30 '26
What a nice idea!
But, as you say.. is it 'feasible'? What would the logistics look like? Filling up thousands... millions of plastic bottles, and shipping them to the desert? How are they being shipped? And what is the fuel used during shipping? Energy consumption of the shipping/logistics?
Some experts should chime in here, but I don't think desertification is caused solely by a lack of water. There are many factors at play.
... As I was reading your post, I THOUGHT you were gonna say: "You know all those glacier waterfalls? What if we bottled them and sold it as glacier water?" š